UNITED KINGDOM
Irish Times
MARK HENNESSY, London Editor
Taoiseach Enda Kenny came face to face in London with the distress of survivors of the Magdalene laundries
For years, the women once held in the Magdalene laundries were ignored or called liars. On Saturday, some of them sat around a table in London with Taoiseach Enda Kenny, recounting a lost youth.
In the wake of the publication of the McAleese report into the Magdalenes, Kenny was criticised for offering a tepid apology to the thousands of women incarcerated on the instruction of the State or religious, or, frequently, of their families.
Unexpectedly, perhaps, Kenny received support from the women.
“I don’t think he should have taken the criticism, because he is not long in government. I think he shouldn’t have taken the stick that he did get,” Mary O’Connor (82) says, “because what we got here today is that he is very genuine about this.
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